The ancient Roman upper classes used to indulge in lavish, hours-long feasts that served to showcase their status in ways that eclipse our notions of a resplendent meal.
Alberto Jori, professor of ancient philosophy at the University of Ferrara in Italy, said: “Eating was the supreme act of civilization and celebration of life.”
Ancient Romans enjoyed sweet and salty concoctions. Lagane, rustic short pasta usually served with chickpeas, was also used to make a honey cake with fresh ricotta cheese. The Romans used garum [Fish Sauce], a pungent, salty fermented fish sauce for umami flavor in all dishes, even as a dessert topping. The prized condiment was made by leaving fish meat, blood and guts to ferment inside containers under the Mediterranean sun.
Game meat such as venison, wild boar, rabbit and pheasant along with seafood like raw oysters, shellfish and lobster were just some of the pricey foods that made regular appearances at the Roman banquet.
What’s more, hosts played a game of one-upmanship by serving over-the-top, exotic dishes like parrot tongue stew and stuffed dormouse.
“Dormouse was a delicacy that farmers fattened up for months inside pots and then sold at markets,” Jori said, adding: “While huge quantities of parrots were killed to have enough tongues to make fricassee.”
Giorgio Franchetti, a food historian and scholar of ancient Roman history, recovered lost recipes from these repasts, which he shares in “Dining With the Ancient Romans,” written with “archaeo-cook” Cristina Conte. Together, the duo organize dining experiences at archaeological sites in Italy that give guests a taste of what eating like a Roman noble was all about. These cultural tours also delve into the eyebrow-raising rituals that accompanied these meals.
Among the unusual recipes prepared by Conte is salsum sine salso, invented by the famed Roman gourmand Marcus Gavius Apicius— an “eating joke” made to amaze and fool guests. The fish would be presented with head and tail, but the inside was stuffed with cow liver. Clever sleight of hand, combined with shock factor, counted for a lot in these competitive displays.
Bodily functions
Gorging for hours on end also called for what we would consider untoward social behavior in order to accommodate such gluttonous indulgences.
Franchetti said: “They had bizarre culinary habits that don’t sit well with modern etiquette, such as eating while lying down and vomiting between courses.”
These practices helped maintain the indulgence. "Banquets were a status symbol, often lasting late into the night, and vomiting was common to make room for more food. The ancient Romans were hedonists, focused on life's pleasures," said Jori, an author on Rome's culinary culture.
It was customary for guests to leave the table and vomit in a nearby room, using a feather to induce it. Afterward, they would return to the banquet while slaves cleaned up, maintaining their high social status by avoiding manual labor.
Gaius Petronius Arbiter’s literary masterpiece “The Satyricon” captures this typical social dynamic of Roman society in mid first century AD with the character of wealthy Trimalchio, who tells a slave to bring him a “piss pot” so he can urinate. In other words, when nature called, revelers didn’t necessarily go to the bathroom; often the WC came to them, powered again by slave labor.
It was normal to pass gas while eating, as it was believed that holding it in could be deadly. Emperor Claudius even issued an edict encouraging flatulence at the table, according to the historian Suetonius.
The comforts and privilege of wealthy men
Bloating was reduced by eating lying down on a comfortable, cushioned chaise longue. The horizontal position was believed to aid digestion – and it was the utmost expression of an elite standing.
“The Romans ate lying on their bellies to evenly distribute their body weight and relax. They propped up their heads with their left hand while using the right to pick up food from the table. Since they ate with their hands, slaves had to cut the food beforehand,” Jori said.
Guests would throw food leftovers, along with meat and fish bones, on the floor. One mosaic found in a Roman villa in Aquileia shows fish and food scraps scattered on the floor, a common sight in banquet halls. Romans decorated floors with such images to camouflage actual food, using a clever mosaic technique known as the “unswept floor” effect.
Lying down also allowed feast goers to occasionally doze off and enjoy a quick nap between courses, giving their stomach a break.
The act of reclining while dining, however, was a privilege reserved for men only. A woman either ate at another table or knelt or sat down beside her husband while he enjoyed his meal.
An ancient Roman fresco from the Casa dei Casti Amanti in Pompeii shows a man reclining while two women kneel beside him. One woman assists him with a horn-shaped drinking vessel called a rhyton. Another fresco from Herculaneum, displayed at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, depicts a woman seated next to a reclining man, also raising a rhyton.
“Men’s reclining eating position symbolized dominance over women. Roman women gained the right to dine with their husbands much later in history, marking their first social victory against sexual discrimination,” Jori explained.
Superstitions at the table
The Romans were deeply superstitious. Anything that fell from the table was considered belonging to the afterworld and should not be retrieved, for fear the dead would seek revenge. Spilling salt was seen as a bad omen, and bread could only be touched with the hands, while eggshells and mollusks had to be cracked. If a rooster crowed at an odd hour, servants were sent to kill it and serve it immediately.
Feasting was a way to ward off death, according to Franchetti. Banquets ended with binge drinking, during which diners discussed death to remind themselves to live fully—essentially, carpe diem. Table objects, like salt and pepper shakers, were shaped like skulls. It was customary to invite deceased loved ones to the meal, serving food to sculptures of the dead seated at the table.
Wine was often diluted with water to reduce alcohol strength, and seawater was added to preserve wine from distant regions. Tar was sometimes mixed with wine, masking its harsh flavor over time.
In perhaps the ultimate sign of excess, the epicure Apicius allegedly committed suicide after going bankrupt from hosting lavish banquets. He left behind a culinary legacy, including his famous Apicius pie made with fish, bird innards, and pig’s breasts—a dish that would likely not tempt today's feast-goers.
[Source: CNN]
Bd-Pratidin English/ Afsar Munna
